Mobile Payments: Informative Hype

News and hype about all the things we can – and are supposed to one day be able to – do with our mobile phones is itself an industry. As with most emerging technologies with great potential this is a natural phemonema. Recently I saw this infographic published and found it to be both well done and informative (if not in and of itself also adding to the hype it hopes to cut through). I thought I’d share it here also and invite commments.

Personally I think the approach by Starbucks has the most promise in terms of generating real evidence about what level of interest and usage might exist with a mobile payments solution. Since it is Starbucks-only it is simple and not as subject to complex technology and adoption issues (e.g., point of sale technology updated or replaced to enable mobile payment acceptance, training and customer service issues of high-turnover retail sales personnel) that plague the other types below.

And it is not an insignificant fact that the ONLY mobile payment type that has any traction today is the one used to buy relatively low importance, low priced things like ringtones and games. And outside the U.S., where supposedly adoption and usage has dwarfed the U.S., the by-far leading uses are parking and other incidental transportation purchases. This after a decade of hype that mobile payments were going to take over all manner of payments across the globe. Seems like great potential is still yet to be fully and clearly revealed. Stay tuned (and wary).